Russian space agency shows interest in US lunar orbiter project

The plans to create a lunar orbital station were unveiled in the spring of 2016

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/. Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos is interested in the US project to create an international lunar orbiter but the Russian side has its wishes and proposals on it, Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin said on Monday.

"We view with interest the project of our US colleagues to create the international manned Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway and we, of course, will have our own proposals and wishes. We are already discussing the technical aspect of the creation of the manned station on the Moon in the foreseeable future," Rogozin said at a conference devoted to the 20th anniversary of the International Space Station.

The plans to create a lunar orbital station were unveiled in the spring of 2016. TASS reported at the time, citing the documents of Russia’s Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, that preliminary work was underway with the US Boeing Company on the issues of creating the near-Moon infrastructure in support of the national space agencies’ future plans.

It was earlier suggested that the lunar orbital outpost would be called Deep Space Gateway. Now the NASA documents mention it as the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway.

In late September 2017, Roscosmos and NASA signed a statement at the international astronautical congress in Adelaide (Australia), which reflected both parties’ intention to jointly work on the implementation of space exploration initiatives. Both sides stated their intention to plan work on creating the habitable outpost in the near-Moon space.